Day 60, Sometimes the Second Choice Works Out Just Fine

Passing through St Louis, we saw The Gateway Arch. It towers over the other buildings in St. Louis and at 630 feet, it is 75 feet taller than the Washington Monument. Truly an impressive sight, even from the interstate.

We didn't stop. Pulling the R-Pod through city streets is something we both prefer to avoid. 

We just so happened to be driving through St. Louis about lunchtime. Denis had researched the best place for barbeque in St. Louis. He said there was a consensus of opinion that it was Pappy's. Sadly, it is closed on Monday and Tuesday. So instead, we headed to arguably the second-best bbq place, Sugarfire Smoke House, which happily has a restaurant in the West-side suburbs, with a parking lot big enough to park an SUV towing an RV.  There were at least eight different BBQ sauces. Denis liked the coffee barbeque sauce best. 

We can tell it is later in the growing season by looking at the fields. We aren't exactly sure what is growing here, but the yellow is a good hint it has neared the end.


We are staying in an RV Park. I partly picked this place because it seemed a convenient stop along the way, but also because it is close to the Katy Bike trail which runs through much of Missouri. Sadly, I didn't do enough research before we got here and we found that it is a gravel trail and, after my fall in Idaho, I am less interested in taking my skinny road bike tires on that surface. 

Luckily, there was a Plan B. Hermann is just the other side of the Missouri River from the trail. It was founded by the German Settlement Society of Philadelphia in 1836 as a place where Germans could preserve their customs and culture "amid the benefits of America." It is a cute tourist destination spot with many of the old buildings still standing, many of them are now B&Bs, which, we are guessing. will be filled as Hermann celebrates Oktoberfest every weekend in October.


There are many breweries, distilleries, and wineries. It was interesting to see so many tasting rooms for Missouri wines, but not see any Missouri vineyards in our travels. The winery we visited boasted that they had a sister winery in Santa Barbara. A search for it on Maps shows it closer to Lompoc. The wines were interesting and were California-priced without the California quality. 


We walked around the town for a while and could see the attraction of it for folks who live nearby. We loved looking at the old buildings and seeing their current use. Some of the old advertisement murals have been repainted to add to the atmosphere.





Location: Rivertrail Rd, Hermann, MO 65041, USA

Comments

  1. Jimmy BSeptember 23, 2021 at 2:50 PM

    Unfortunately, you missed having frozen custard desserts at Ted Drew's, a 70+ year old renowned Southwest St Louis custard stand "must stop" from my youth.

    ReplyDelete

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